Nice Côte d’Azur Airport will be the first in France to offer free, fully electric busses for use between its terminals. The move marks another major step in the airport’s commitment to being carbon neutral and, by 2030, completely carbon free.
It was announced this week that Transdev Alpes-Maritimes has been selected by Nice Côte d’Azur Airport to deploy a fleet of three 100% electric buses, eCitaro Mercedes, which will operate seven days a week, from 4.30am to 12.30am, as shuttles between terminals and car parks of the second largest airport in France.
With a range of 160 kilometres, or eight hours, the fleet will allow the simultaneous and continuous operation of two shuttles, which will be utilising a continuous recharging process by recovery of kinetic energy.
In choosing 100% electric transport, the airport will be able to cut its CO2 emissions by 250 tonnes while also significantly reducing noise.
“Following the commissioning of the tramway extension to our terminals in December 2018, we are proud to become the first airport in France to offer free 100% electric shuttles to our passengers,” said Dominique Thillaud, President of the Board of Directors of the Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur. “This innovation reinforces our policy of preserving our territory and developing its attractiveness.”
The electric shuttles form part of the airport’s voluntary policy of preservation of the environment. In 2016, the airport achieved Level 3+ certification of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program, the highest rating, for its carbon neutrality. The Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur’s more ambitious goal is to achieve zero CO2 emissions by 2030.
The 12-metre shuttles will accommodate around 90 people and will have 26 seats with leather headrest, low bay windows and blue interior lighting “for a soothing atmosphere reminiscent of the Mediterranean”. Passengers will also have four USB ports in the vehicles. Meanwhile, a perfume diffuser will be triggered each time the doors are opened.
The acquisition of the fleet was supported by the Provence Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region and the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis.
“We wanted to make the southern region a driving force for climate agreements,” said Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region. “For this purpose, we voted in our Regional Climate Plan, a ‘COP in advance’, which concretely translates to 100 actions around five major axes, to which we devote nearly 25% of the budget of the region. Among these actions, mobility plays a major role. This project marks a step closer to our goal of becoming the first Smart region in Europe.”
Meanwhile, a fleet of electric buses are set to operate along the Promenade des Anglais from the beginning of December.
“Clean and ecological, these new means of transport will contribute to achieving the ambitious goal we have set for ourselves in the framework of our Climate-Territorial Energy Plan adopted in October, namely to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 22%,” added Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis and Deputy President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region.
The airport buses will be commissioned on 28th November.
MCA Live, or Monte-Carlo Aesthetics Live & Practical Congress, is the largest beauty and anti-aging live show in Europe, welcoming delegates and exhibitors at the Grimaldi Forum on 8th and 9th November 2019. Wellness contributor Marina Matkova is a regular guest at the event and she shared her insights for our readers.[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
As a healthcare professional, it is absolutely crucial to be up to date with cutting-egde scientific information in anti-aging medicine, and MCA Live Congress is an excellent resource for that. Hearing high impact lectures delivered by world renowned doctors, I discover a wide range of new ideas and approaches for the most optimal results. The conference is a great opportunity to interact with international specialists in beauty and rejuvenation industry.
Under the supervision of scientific director and famous Doctor Claude Dalle, the longevity fundamentals were presented in sessions: smart ageing, microbiota news, epigenetics etc.
The most impressive was a speech by Doctor Michael Sagner about metabolic endocrinology where, besides the importance of lifestyle choices, he also reviled the forecast from Bank of America: “The Anti-aging business will balloon to 610 billion dollars by 2025, from an estimated 110 billion currently”.
Doctor Jean-Marc Villafranca
During his presentation, Doctor Jean-Marc Villafranca rephrased the greatest slogans:
Hippocrate: All disease begins in the gut… To: Aging begins in the gut.
Paracelse: What is food for one is poison to another one… To: With age some food may be toxic to most.
Metchnikoff: The study of immunity is part of the chapter on digestion from a general point of view… To: The study of rejuvenation is part of the chapter on digestion from a general point of view.
Having attained a master’s degree in Nutritional Science, it is obvious to point out the role of gut microflora in complete health regeneration. Nowadays, nutrition and micro-nutrition are the only proactive tool towards intelligent wellbeing together with genetic and microbiome biomarker testing. It might be a costly challenge to survive on “anti-nutrients” like junk food on a daily basis. My vision in lifestyle management is based on guiding people to reach their ultimate performance by becoming a biohacker and a superhuman for themselves.
See you next time at AMWC 2020 the Aesthetic & Anti-aging Medicine World Congress in Grimaldi Forum, Monaco 2-3-4 April 2020!
Boy George – the artist – made his world debut in Monaco on Friday night with an exhibition at G&M Design Gallery, adding to an already long list of achievements.In an exclusive interview, Monaco Life Editor in Chief Cassandra Tanti delved into the story behind his latest creative outlet and discovered why faces play such a significant role in his art.
I walk into G&M Design Gallery three hours ahead of the world premiere of ‘Scarmen & Other Imperfections’, Boy George’s first ever public exhibit of his art work. Sitting on a small black table chatting casually with a group of women is the artist himself; a metre away is billionaire businesswoman and gallery owner Lady Tina Green.
It is with a zen-like air of content that Boy George greets me with genuine warmth and I sit down to begin our interview. I don’t even get to ask the first question as George launches into a free-flowing conversation and I hurry to turn on my recorder.
Considering the last thing I read about Boy George was the fact that he stormed off the set of TheVoice Australia, I am thinking to myself, “Well, this isn’t so hard.”
“There are only so many songs you can release,” George shares with me. “I feel like creativity is physical. I have to do get it out; I have to take the risk. Creative expression is about the reaction you get from other people. That has always been the thing that’s fuelled me from the beginning of my life really, when I discovered music at around 10 or 11 years old. That was the beginning of me sort of reacting to the world.”
Boy George with his mum Dinah
Boy George was born George Alan O’Dowd in Kent, England and is the second of six children. His father, Jerry, was a builder – a trade that his brothers followed willingly. “Not the most creative environment for a young visionary to grow up in?” I query.
“I actually always thought my father was a creative person who was completely frustrated. He could do calligraphy; he had the most amazing handwriting, and he was actually quite poetic and could sing, but that only ever came out at family weddings when there was whiskey around.
“My mum also wrote a book in her later life. They were creative, it was just circumstance – they had six children and didn’t have time to express it. My family were quite conservative, but surprisingly open minded when it mattered. When I came out at age 15 my dad was completely cool about it. In fact, they weren’t surprised at all,” he says laughing.
Boy George and his father Jerry
You would assume, then, that it was his only sister who educated the impressionable young George in the world of make-up and fashion, but that influence was gifted by another member of the family. “My sister is kind of a tomboy and my mum didn’t really have a lot of makeup either.
“But I had one aunty called Josie who was a drop-dead Hollywood beauty, men used to flock to her, and she had a big influence on me in terms of being glamorous and wanting to look beautiful. When I was 17, before I was famous and was just a club kid, I did a photoshoot and somebody had professionally done my makeup. When I came home and showed dad my face, he said “You look like your aunty Josie!” and I yelled, “Finally!”.
It was at that moment that faces became an integral element of Boy George’s creativity. Bright colours, splashes of glitter, bold expressions… it is how George has always expressed himself, only now the faces are on a canvas.
“I think faces are everything. I don’t know if it’s deliberate, I just think faces are so powerful and the sort of faces I draw are unusual, they are people with an attitude, they are people with a different sense of humour, they are provocative, and sometimes they are hiding things.”
Born in 1961, Boy George was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s. “Obviously, I grew up through all of those amazing fashion tribal movements – punk rock, glam rock, reggae… The 70s particularly had a massive influence on me in terms of who I am aesthetically and who I am as an artist.”
He points to his piece ‘Yamamoto’ on the wall opposite us.
‘Yamamoto’ by Boy George
“I was at that gig in 1972, when David Bowie came on stage with this incredible Yamamoto outfit and these two women came up to him and pulled it apart. It was really theatrical.”
He recreates that momentous experience with child-like interpretation, a technique that is replicated throughout all of his works. Not surprisingly, Boy George’s influence comes from Keith Haring, the American artist whose pop art and grafitti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. More surprising is the fact that Boy George has never received any real training.
“I did get a bit of guidance but all that did was make me realise that I needed to find my own way of doing it. I have broken choreographers; I am not someone who can be told what to do.”
As George explains, each piece of art he creates begins as a small hand drawing.
“For me, it’s the whole process, similar to when you write a song. You are building something that starts quite small and then becomes something flamboyant. Finally, you have the moment on stage – the payoff moment. Like this exhibition.”
Lady Tina Green can be credited for convincing Boy George that his art work needed to go on show publicly, and that her gallery in Monaco was the perfect place for his world premiere.
Boy George and Tina Green. Photo credit: Claudia Albuquerque
“Lady Tina was the person that really encouraged me to do this exhibition. I have been stock piling for a number of years now, without any real intention of showing it. To be honest, I don’t really know what I was going to do with it.”
Boy George has, over the years, donated a few of his works for fundraising. In fact, one of his sketches sold for more at a charity auction than an original artwork by the Angel of the North creator and famous sculptor Antony Gormley.
‘Scarman’, the promotional piece for this exhibition, also features in the singer’s new song ‘Let Somebody Love You’. The single is from the album ‘Life’, Boy George and Culture Club’s first album in 19 years.
Boy George may have shot to fame as the flamboyant frontman of Culture Club in the 1980s, but he was also a successful DJ for 25 years, a photographer and is still a fashion designer.
“I started making clothing because I didn’t want to have the same clothes as everybody else. There is no incubation with ideas nowadays, once something goes on the internet it is out there. There is nothing that hasn’t been done before. But what you are left with is your own interpretation of everything and I think that is just as valuable and beautiful as anything else.”
Monaco Life Editor Cassandra Tanti with Boy George
And with that Boy George is whisked away from our interview and taken across the room. As I get ready to leave, he comes bouncing out the door. “I just sold my first ever painting!” he tells me excitedly.
‘Prince’, it turns out, had attracted the attention of a collector hours before the exhibition was even due to open.
Boy George – the artist – is clearly on another path to success.
The World Sports Legends Awards will be holding its fourth annual event in early December in the Principality to celebrate the best athletes in the world.
Dubbed the “Oscars of Sport”, the best-of-the-best sports personalities from around the globe will be descending on Monaco the weekend of 6th and 7th December to receive recognition and awards for their pursuits. The main events, hosted in five languages, will take place at the Fairmont Hotel, with ancillary events being held at the Automobile Club of Monaco and the Sun Casino.
This year’s recipients include Quatari Olympic medallist and three time Paris-Dakar Rally winner Nassar Al-Attiyah, American Formula 1, Nascar and Indycar racing legend Mario Andretti, Italian Loris Capirossi, the three time World Champ of MotoGP, and Ana Gabriela Guevara, the Mexican World Champion of the 400 metre and a mutli- Olympic medallist.
The WSLA also gives a posthumous award. This year’s legend has yet to be formally announced but was recently honoured in his home country by having the national sports stadium named after him.
The award is presented to athletes, both active and retired, who have gained recognition for their top-notch sports abilities and for their exemplary comportment, making them inspirational leaders as well as athletes. The selected athletes will join the Pantheon of World Sports Legends and will contribute casts of their handprints to be added to those who came before them. The prints will be on exhibit during the event.
A special addendum to the event, curated and produced by Promo Art Monte-Carlo Productions, is linking the world of sport to that of fashion, art and entertainment, creating a VIP red carpet event, hence the nickname the Oscars of Sport.
Friday 6th December is Media Day and the Cristal Galerie at the Fairmont will be host to talks and art exhibits from 12pm to 6pm. The party then moves to the Automobile Club of Monaco for a 7pm Press Conference followed by a cocktail event and dinner.
The following evening is the awards ceremony and gala dinner which starts at 8pm with a photo call on the red carpet. Dinner and the awards presentations will begin at 9pm and the evening winds up with a late night party and cocktail at the Sun Lounge at Sun Casino from midnight.
People of Monaco, meet ALF, La Poste’s experimental new tracking robot who for 15 days will carry packages and mail for selected postal workers aiding in the delivery process and creating a thoroughly modern postal system.
ALF is short for Assistance to Logistics Factor and its primary function is to improve the working conditions of local postal delivery people by doing the heavy lifting. La Poste aims to make the tracking robot available to mail carriers in several formats if the initial experiment proves to be a success.
ALF is designed to follow postal workers at a constant distance of 50 cm behind and does so using something dubbed the “follow me mode”. This mode “learns” how the carriers walk and uses leg recognition to create a blueprint for accurately following them.
The automated tracking robot currently being tested has a capacity of 1m3, which equates to a large volume of mail, two regular trollies worth, that can be delivered without as much wear and tear on the worker.
This initial test will cover the eastern sections of the Principality, covering areas on and around Boulevard de Moulins and Boulevard d’Italie.
La Poste expects to have five ALF robots in use by 2020.
A touching ceremony was held on Monday afternoon at the base of the Rock near Place d’Armes where a commemorative plaque was installed in 1922 marking the assistance and care Prince Albert I and the Monegasques provided to wounded American soldiers during and in the days immediately after World War I.
HSH Prince Albert II and many local dignitaries took part, despite inclement weather, gathering in front of the plaque where Director of Palace Archives Thomas Fouilleron explained the history of the memorial and shared photographs of the convalescing soldiers.
The Carabiniers du Prince Orchestra then sang the United States’ national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, followed by Monaco’s anthem, Hymne Monegasque, before closing the ceremony.
Monaco received many wounded allied troops during the First World War and was able to accommodate them by converting hotels into temporary hospitals. In September 1918, Prince Albert I specified his desire to assist convalescing American soldiers by hosting them in the Principality. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) returned in November 1922, just after the death of the Prince, to offer a commemorative plaque in appreciation of his thoughtfulness and the efforts of the people of Monaco to help.
This year marks another special Monaco-USA occasion on what would have been the 90th birthday of Princess Grace, mother of the Sovereign Prince and an American. As a tribute, Prince Albert II invited the American Army’s Guard of Honour to the palace.
Twenty-nine US Air Force soldiers made the trip from Washington DC where they were entertained by the Carabiniers du Prince Orchestra, who played a repertoire of American military march songs, as well as featuring a bagpipe musician in traditional Irish clothing playing a special dirge to honour Princess Grace and her Irish heritage.
The ceremony was concluded with a parade, led by the Carabineros, with the Carabiniers du Prince and the US soldiers preceded by the American flag and its guard.
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